In an effort to draw more volunteers into a vital role in the community support network, the Women's Resource Centre will be offering a ten-week course starting next week.

The course is designed to train volunteers to handle Crisis Hotline calls to the centre ? which deals with incidents of sexual and domestic abuse ? as well other aspects of crisis counselling.

WRC's clinical supervisor Kathy Harriott said the course, which begins on February 7, offers much to volunteers.

"Anyone who wants to be a Hotline volunteer has to take the ten-week course first," she said.

"So if you have an interest in helping the community, then give us a call.

"Anyone can be on the Hotline, although women are preferred."

Mrs. Harriott said the WRC is particularly looking for volunteers with language skills at the moment.

"We'd like to reach out to the smaller ethnicities and other cultures within the Bermuda community so that we can have a nice cross-section of the population to answer calls and to possibly do translation in the office as well," she said.

"We have had need for Portuguese and Spanish (speakers) and, if people have had the ten-week course, then they have a better understanding of sexual assault and domestic violence." spoke with three of the volunteers currently working with WRC about some of their experiences ? all three asked not to be identified by their real names for security reasons.

"Tina" started working with WRC 14 years ago and has been on the board for the last decade.

She said she was interesting in taking on a similar volunteer role in the UK, but only really pursued it when she came to Bermuda.

Personal experience led her to view the role of crisis counselling as vital, she added.

"I had experiences with a boyfriend who was verbally abusive," she said. "And when I got out of that situation, it gave me a better appreciation for what some women go through.

"It also gave me an awareness that it could happen to anybody. It made me want to reach out to help other women."

Another volunteer, "Pat", said watching the hell a friend went through at the hands of a physically abusive, alcoholic father led her to her helping role at WRC.

"When he was coming home, they'd hear his footsteps on the stairs and they knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be beating their mother," she said.

"Just seeing how that impacted her, made me realise that people in that situation need help."

Pat has now been volunteering with WRC for 19 years.

The newest member of the team which spoke to , "Lynette", only joined the Hotline 18 months ago, but said it has always been important to her to work with young women.

In getting to know many young women, she found that too many had already been drawn into the cycle of violence by someone in their lives.

"While working with a lot of young teenagers, I could see that they were being abused by young men and not really getting help for it," she said. "So I thought that this was a way that I could help and I hope that we can reach that age group."

Whether the volunteers have been working with WRC for years or months, however, their sensitivity to the pain and suffering of those that call on their services never deadens.

"It is tough going to the hospital with them, and they are right there beside you, and you can see how shocked they are at what they have gone through by their attacker," Pat said.

Family members and other persons close to the women are often there to offer support as well, Tina added.

"The one thing that I have been impressed with is the level of support that family members and friends have given. Because it has never failed that there are at least one or two parents or siblings there with them and that is really, really valuable," she said of when victims are taken to hospital.

"Oftentimes they are the ones who are better able to talk with us and take the information that we have and also make sure that the person follows up with us at the Centre, because they are more rational than the victim.

"We spend more time with them also because the person is being examined sometimes for hours."

The volunteers stress the importance of reaching out to the victims.

"Sometimes you just want to do more, or you want to take them and hug them," Lynette said. "And sometimes I wish that we could do more, but also sometimes that is all you can do at that time."

The WRC team can be called into action by victims themselves, supporting family members or friends or by Police, who often call the volunteers to attend the hospital when there has been an incident.

"When the Police get the information they call out the whole team," Mrs. Harriott said.

"That means a volunteer from here, a Sexual Assault Response Team nurse to do the examination and Social Services if there is a child involved."

Sadly, the WRC's Hotline tends to be busier during the summer months and around the holidays.

Calls also tend to pick up after an awareness campaign, Mrs. Harriott added.

"We had had a campaign last May and by October, our calls had increased by 17 percent and 19 percent more than 2004," she said.

"One week we had 13 calls and that is unusual ? sometimes we're really busy and sometimes we're not."

Women call the Hotline for a variety of reasons other than domestic and sexual assault.

"Sometimes it is support or immigration questions from spouses of Bermudians," Mrs. Harriott said. "It is very difficult for women married to Bermudians when the marriage breaks down."

Even tourists call the Hotline.

Pat said sometimes visitors come to Bermuda and let their guards down and end up in difficult situations.

"That is very hard and you don't want people to go away from Bermuda with a bad memory, but unfortunately sometimes they do," she said.

While many potential volunteers fear the stress of having to cope with a suicidal caller, Mrs. Harriott said such calls are rare.

"Suicide calls are very, very rare and it is one of the things that volunteers are most afraid of, but they represent less than one percent of calls," she said.

When the Hotline is in operation ? which it is daily between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. ? the volunteers work in tandem, one senior with one junior.

"(For example) Lynette answers all the calls and if she needs help she goes to her number one," Mrs. Harriott said.

"There is also supervisor available to all of them should they need support, because sometimes a call can be traumatising for them."

And clinicians are available to help out when the need develops as well.

"So if a new person gets a suicide call, they must call a clinician because we can't leave the volunteers with that type of responsibility," Mrs. Harriott said.

Despite the intensity of the work they do, WRC's long-term volunteers said they rarely get burned out.

"The volume of calls ? and you're only on one week a month ? doesn't really cause burn out for us," said Tina.

"Sometimes if you have a particularly traumatising incident, it makes you stop and think 'do you want to continue' or 'can you continue', but that often reinforces that you do."

Rather than losing volunteers to burnout, WRC may lose volunteers to a perceived lack of need.

"At times I think we have lost volunteers because they felt that there weren't enough calls and that they weren't making a contribution," Tina said.

"They thought that by signing up for the Hotline, they would have been busier and helping women in need. Something that would be bigger than it is. But there can be weeks when there are no calls and that's good news. We hope that there isn't someone out there getting hurt."

After their ten weeks of training, volunteers are often aching to help, however.

"I think my first night, I kept checking the phone to make sure that it was working," Lynette said. "Sometimes you can go a whole week without a call."

When the Hotline rings, however, the volunteers spring to action.

"If they call the Hotline, we make sure that they are safe and make sure the (abuser) isn't there," said Tina.

"We let them talk and then we offer them the services of the Centre, whether it is counselling, legal advice or more information."

But the Hotline is far from the only volunteer role to be filled at WRC, Mrs. Harriott said, and those interested in giving time in other ways are welcome to explore those options.

"It is meaningful work," Mrs. Harriott said.

The ten-week training course costs $85 and takes place at the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evenings. If volunteers intend to work on the Hotline, they must attend eight out of the ten weeks and there are a further four weeks of training specifically for the Hotline.

For more information on services visit www.wrcbermuda.com, 295-3882 or email wrcwrcbermuda.com. The WRC Crisis Hotline is 295-7273.